Opinion

 

 

 

The family reunion in Hawaii was upcom ing — should I go? I had been avoiding the issue for almost a year. It was in July and July is a wonderful time to be on the Vineyard. It was far. The tickets were expensive. And in my dotage I have become unreasonably fearful of airplanes.

Then I heard Lizzie’s voice — that’s Elizabeth Puuki Napoleon Low — my Hawaiian grandmother, long departed from this world.

“Just go,“ she said.

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Night falls on Chappy. With it, falls rain. A mother and child run over the grate of the ferry landing, hopping puddles to the parking lot, where their car beeps a welcome unlocking. A captain waves goodbye and hopes for more CNN and less SUV. Mostly though, we are indoors now. We are stirring sauces. We are cleaning lint filters. We are watching the flames behind wood stove doors. We are working. We are playing. We are resting. We are, as we will be more and more, inside.

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